Hands 2 Help Reveal!

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict has a program each year called Hands2Help where she enlists the help of quilters to make and donate quilts to various charities.  It's a great program and lots of fun to participate - I think I've participated every year, and the program grows each year with many quilts going to deserving charities.

This year, I had lots of help, so have several quilts to send.  I also got an A1 Elite Longarm last year, so have spent the past year learning and practicing.  Some domestic machine skills transfer over pretty well, and others not so much!  But it's been a lot of fun, and my donation quilt closet is overflowing.

I also had some help with fabric.  My friend Donna at Brynwood Needleworks offered me a big bag of fabric from her friend Shelly.  Of course, I couldn't say no to that.  I added some of my fabrics to them, and Donna supplied the backings, so between the three of us, we have two quilts to donate.

This first quilt is Creepy Crawly (named for the bug print fabric) and is quilted with a cute ABC pantograph.  It's a nice size for a child, about 36" x 44".

The second quilt I called "Sunshine".  The print squares have smiling suns and flowers in them.  It's quilted with a pantograph called Animal Crackers, and it turned out very cute.  It's about 40" x 40".

There is still a huge amount of fabric left in that bag Shelly gave me, and I've already pieced two more tops from it, so there will be future donation quilts from the Shelly/Donna duo.  Donna quilts and blogs, and also makes fabulous purses and wallets from cork fabric.  Be sure to visit her Etsy shop here if you're in the market for a new purse!

My mom has been piecing up a storm, and now that I've got a longarm, I can finish them for her.  She sent several tops which I finished, as well as a completed quilt.

This first quilt has a Mother Goose theme - the print fabrics are all from Mother Goose books.  I did lots of fun freehand quilting on this one.  It's a little bigger, maybe 40" x 50".  I didn't measure any of these, and they are already boxed up to mail!

This ABC panel quilt is a lot of fun, too.  It got some custom quilting around all of the motifs.  The color in this picture isn't very good - this quilt is much cuter in person!  It's a little smaller size for a young child, around 36" square.

And Mom made this pretty pink and gray quilt that some small child will love - it has a satin binding and a fleece backing with pink elephants on it.  This quilt is also about 36" square.

These two quilts are my contribution to H2H this year.  They are Morning Glory Farm panels, with blue dot borders added and a flannel backing, and lots of quilting!  They are each about 38" x 48" and have lots of cute animals on them.  I think some children will love to snuggle with these.

So the final tally for H2H is seven this year!  I'm hoping to have even more next year, now that I'm warmed up on the longarm.  These quilts are all much prettier in person - the pictures never do them justice, and I'm more skilled at quilting than photography.  😉  All seven quilts are boxed up and will be sent to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids tomorrow.  Thank you to the sponsors who donate such wonderful prizes for this program, and to Sarah for all her work in setting this up and running it.  I'm going up to the sewing room now to get started on next year's quilts!